Summary

At a glance, here’s what you need to know:

() The average cost to dry out a home is $2,700 (this doesn’t include any reconstruction efforts such as replacing floors that were torn out, drywall, etc.)

() The average water damage insurance claim is $7,500 (including drying and reconstruction).

() The price per square foot to cleanup and dry out a home is:

Category 1  – $3.75

Category 2 – $4.50

Category 3 – $7.00

Read further to see what category your loss is!

() All restoration companies charge the same rates. The total cost of the job is ultimately determined by your insurance adjuster. Even if you aren’t filing a claim, we all have to use the exact same software to estimate the loss.

Full article

Water restoration services are not cheap. Yet water damage repair costs are considerably less expensive than the total replacement cost of structures and items irreparably damaged by leaks and floods.

Between 2007 and 2009, homeowners suffered approximately $9.1 billion in property losses associated with water damage. That was almost 25 percent of total homeowner property losses sustained during that same period. Experts agree that water damage remediation services can save home and business owners between 15 and 40 percent of the costs associated with property loss due to water damage.

What Factors Influence Water Damage Costs?

A number of factors influence water damage repair costs. First and foremost is the type of water that caused the damage. Water restoration experts identify three types of water:

Clean water: Clean water is rain water that comes from a window or water that comes from a tap that was accidentally left open. Clean water poses no threats to health.

Grey water: Grey water is water that is discharged from major appliances like dishwashers and washing machines. Grey water contains chemical and biological pollutants that can cause illness.

Black water: Black water is sewage water or flood water from ground sources such as overflowing rivers and streams. Black water constitutes an extreme health risk.

Water damage costs will be higher when technicians are dealing with damage caused by grey or black water because more stringent disinfection processes must be put into place, and the technicians themselves are facing a greater risk to their own health.

The Extent of the Damage

The larger the affected area, the higher the water damage repair cost. Most water restoration repair companies base their initial estimates on the square footage of the area they will be working to restore. Similarly, the extent of the damage will have an effect on the project costs. Restoring a carpet that has sustained clean water damage will cost less than restoring a water damaged wall that already shows signs of dry rot and mold infestation.

What about price per square foot costs?

As we outlined above, there are some nationwide average figures that should at least give you a ballpark at this point in your journey. It’s important to understand a couple of things regarding the figures below, though:

Category 1 – $3.75

Category 2 – $4.50

Category 3 – $7.00

First, these numbers just represent the cost of drying the water damage, not doing the actual repairs. Second, these numbers assume the loss just occurred and that it hasn’t been sitting for a period of time. If it’s the case you had a basement flood and the area has been wet for days, the costs are going to go up because the water has had time to become trapped in surfaces and will be much more difficult to dry. It can also be the case that if the area sits wet for over 48 hours, mold growth will occur. Again, you’re then looking at a significantly more expensive price per square foot to cleanup water damage.

Costs of water damage repair

Often times people call us and want to know how much the entire project is going to cost on a price per square foot basis. If you’re in the same boat, and want to know what that will be, let us save you a phone call and say this:

It is impossible to give you any sort of cost per square foot for repairing water damage without seeing the actual loss.

Why? Well, as we mentioned above, every water damage company charges the same rates. That’s true because we have all had to become compliant with a system called Xactimate, an estimating software that insurers and mitigation companies have adopted. In Xactimate, we essentially put in a bunch of data….what surface type was affected, how many linear square feet of baseboard, how many square feet of carpet, what type of carpet, etc. But the variance in cost between these data entries can be dramatic. For instance, there are 6 different inputs for carpet, with a range in cost from $1 to up to $6 or $7 per square foot. So any guess on our part regarding the cost to replace the carpet, should that be necessary, is worthless until we can actually see the carpet and determine what type of carpet it actual is. And that goes for every single area in your home that got water damage. While drying costs are some what uniform, estimating the cost of replacing and repairing areas that got wet is a completely different ballgame.

Click here to see average rates nationwide for water losses.

Want to know how we go about calculating what to charge to cleanup water damage on your property?  Watch this 1 minute video!

Will Insurance Cover the Costs of Water Damage?

Depending upon the type of homeowner’s insurance policy you have, insurance will often cover at least part of the costs of water damage restoration even if it does not reimburse you for the cost of the actual repair. Much depends upon the exact wording of the policy, and whether or not the homeowner or members of his or her household can be said to be culpable for the events that led to the water damage.

We have emergency crews available nationwide!